Nihonkoku Shoukan Chapter 34

Spring 2019 anime:

We Never Learn: Typical harem romcom, I enjoy the manga and think the adaptation looks good, but you're not missing much if you skip it. Fairy Gone: Original anime project written by the author of Grimgar, first episode was decent, I'll be following it. Fruits Basket: Haven't watched the first episode yet, but I've heard very good things about the reboot, and I really like the manga, so will be watching it. Kimetsu no Yaiba: ufotable + Kajiura Yuki doing the music? Yes please! Kono Oto Tomare!: First episode was kind of typical high school stuff, but I'm excited for when they actually get to the koto playing. An amazing manga, so hoping the adaptation is equally amazing. Senryuu Shoujo: Cute short anime!

Other shows I'll be checking out:

Kenja no Mago Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san One Punch Man S2 Chapter 34 - The Sunset of a Superpower (2)

Papaldia Empire, imperial capital Esthirant, Remille's mansion

"U-Ugh! No! Stop! Stooooop!!!"

Remille woke up. She was in her room, her breathing ragged, her entire body covered in sweat. After that meeting with Mu's amba.s.sador, she had seen the same nightmare countless times, the one where j.a.pan's army ran roughshod all over the empire. They had the faces of the j.a.panese people she had executed, the ones who had died by her order in the Kingdom of Fenn.

"Tch!"

Remille collapsed into her bed again, lying face down. She had really screwed this one up. She thought it was for the sake of the empire, so she had put everything into her work and pushed forward rashly. However, the result of that was… the empire's survival, barely hanging on by a thread.

Based on what Mu's amba.s.sador said:

j.a.pan was far stronger than Mu. They may even surpa.s.s the Holy Mirishial Empire. There was a possibility that the imperial capital could be completely destroyed. j.a.pan's combat aircraft could fly faster than sound.

She couldn't believe it! No matter what, she just couldn't believe any of it. But since they had already suffered devastating losses twice to j.a.pan, it… was probably true. Combat aircraft that could surpa.s.s the speed of sound almost sounded like something from the ancient sorcerous empire… If they had equipment comparable to that mythical country, then, realistically, Papaldia had no chance of victory. Remille thought hard about a possible way to avoid battle, muttering to herself.

"We could gift them land, or divide up territory with them… does j.a.pan want anything? Ah!!!"

With a start, Remille remembered what Amba.s.sador Asada had said: Regarding the ma.s.sacre in the Kingdom of Fenn, we request the extradition of criminal offenders and any related persons. You yourself are naturally included in the list, and the emperor is also an important witness, so please turn yourselves in!

"That can't happen… it won't happen! It absolutely will never happen!!!"

She herself was an imperial n.o.ble. Not only that, she was a n.o.ble from one of the world's five superpowers, and she would someday marry Emperor Ludius and become empress; they were going to conquer the world, and she would be its queen! How could she give that up just to appease some barbarians outside the civilized areas for killing a few hundred of their people!!!

"I will not allow myself to be captured by j.a.pan!!!"

Remille was determined to struggle until the very end.

Imperial capital Esthirant, imperial palace

Emperor Ludius received a report from the 1st Foreign Affairs Department Head Elto.

"According to what Mu's amba.s.sador told us, it's clear that the aircraft from the reports were developed in j.a.pan. That concludes my report on j.a.pan; we wish to ask for Your Grace's guidance on what should happen next."

Emperor Ludius stayed silent for a time. To Elto, having to wait quietly for this long was unbearable.

"Elto."

"Yes, Your Grace!"

"Do you fear j.a.pan?"

"N…No, of course not! It's simply that, I am overwhelmed by this report."

"Elto, you have forgotten three things."

"What… May I ask what those are?"

"First, a defensive position is much easier to maintain than an offensive one. In the previous two battles, we were the attackers in the first, and we were completely unprepared in the second. The empire itself is fully prepared, surprise attacks will not work."

"Of course, Your Grace!"

"Second, j.a.pan only spends about one percent of their gross national income on their military. Even if they were a large country, they could not support a large army with only that much investment. In all likelihood, even if their weapons are high-quality, they will not have very many of them."

"I… I believe your reasoning to be sound on that topic."

Even still, our military suffered two enormous defeats to j.a.pan! Elto wanted to shout, but he swallowed his words.

"Third, even if our enemy were the Holy Mirishial Empire, we simply have no choice but to prevail. Our empire is meant to rule over the world, and this is our divine trial. In this battle with j.a.pan, even if their main force is their navy, our ground forces are strong: they are equipped with the newest weaponry, they are well-trained, and they are at full strength! In addition, our new wyvern overlords have yet to see battle. What we sent to Altarus was our main navy. Even in the one-in-million chance they are defeated, there is no country in this world that can best our defending ground army."

"Ooh!"

Hearing Emperor Ludius's explanations, Elto felt enlightened. It was true that their main forces were still hale and hearty, and their ground army had only tangled with j.a.pan's army a single time. With the empire's elite ground force on defense with the advantages from being in their home country, they couldn't even be outcla.s.sed by the Holy Mirishial Empire.

"You are absolutely right! Your Grace's wisdom is unparalleled!!!"

Department Head Elto prostrated himself before Emperor Ludius.

Papaldia Empire, imperial capital Esthirant, 3rd Foreign Affairs Department Head Kyeos's mansion

The 1st foreign affairs department and Remille were acting oddly. This strange behavior started after the meeting with Mu's amba.s.sador, during which they were probably given information about j.a.pan's actual power. Common sense dictated the obvious course of action, but considering that there were no large commotions around the 1st foreign affairs department, it appeared that Emperor Ludius and Remille were not planning to allow themselves to be extradited to j.a.pan as war criminals.

"If they would just turn themselves in, it would minimize the chance of the empire's citizens being dragged into this war!!!" Kyeos muttered irritably in his room. "Do I need to make a move this early? …No, since the military is still mostly intact, I can't secure the support of the people."

He couldn't execute his plan until the empire weakened a bit. However, the only way it would "weaken" would be if some civilians were sacrificed in defense of the empire. Kyeos was not happy with that tradeoff.

He also had one other worry. What if, after j.a.pan's first attack, the empire became so crippled they could not recover? There was a chance that the va.s.sal states would then align themselves with j.a.pan, in which case it might become impossible to maintain the empire as an independent country. Kyeos felt impatience.

"What should I… what should I do?!"

Kingdom of Altarus, royal capital Le Brias

Lumiess looked down on the capital from within the castle. No matter how many times she went over it in her head, the only explanation she could find for this situation was that a miracle occurred. She thought back.

Papaldia's amba.s.sador had demanded that she be given over to him as a slave. At the same time, the king, her father, was pressed to transfer the rights to the core of the kingdom's economy, the Siltras magic gem mine, over to the empire. When the king refused to comply with these demands, the Papaldia Empire, a superpower, started a war with the Kingdom of Altarus. The Altaran navy was wiped out by the Papaldian navy, and, similarly, the elite Altaran ground army was wiped out by the imperial army.

By order of the king, Lumiess had escaped from the kingdom on a disguised merchant ship. Right when they ran out of food supplies, they were saved by a j.a.panese ship just north of Rodenius and she found herself living in j.a.pan.

j.a.pan was a wondrous place. There were buildings that rose up far into the sky, there was the large-scale transportation and distribution system known as the "railroad," and there were cities that shined bright through the night. It was like living inside of a fairy tale.

However, the Papaldia Empire's evil influence even extended all the way to this country on the far eastern edge of the world. In the Kingdom of Fenn, the imperial army murdered scores of j.a.panese tourists.

That was how the Papaldia Empire came to incur j.a.pan's wrath.

The empire, which had trampled over the Kingdom of Altarus, got annihilated by j.a.pan's Self-Defense Forces, the name for their military, and, unbelievably, j.a.pan didn't even lose a single soldier in the effort.

When she heard the news, she prayed to G.o.d. If she were able to form an alliance with j.a.pan, the imperial army could be driven out of the Kingdom of Altarus. That was the dream she envisioned. Unfortunately, j.a.pan was unable to sign the security treaty with Altarus, citing their const.i.tution as the primary obstacle.

Lumiess had fallen into despair.

Upon hearing this verdict, it took everything she had to keep herself from breaking down into tears. However, they had immediately offered an alternative. j.a.pan would "just get rid of the imperial army occupying Altarus" or something absurd like that. Shortly afterwards, they actually did expel the empire's forces, and that was how she came to be standing in the castle at that moment. And now…

Princess Lumiess looked up. Beautiful, dazzling planes with the mark of the red sun on a white field painted on them were flying through the sky. The roars of the aircraft, the loud whir of turboprops, the sheer number of them flying around, she could describe it in a single word as "incredible." The demonic Papaldia Empire and the demon-hunting army of the sun: they were finally going to attack the empire itself. It would be a march of destruction.

Princess Lumiess and all the citizens of the Kingdom of Altarus watched the j.a.pan Maritime Self-Defense Force's large formation of P3Cs with fierce hope in their hearts.

Early morning

The skies were clear and blue, and a cool wind blew. There was just a little light, and visibility was very good.

High in the sky about 300 kilometers south of the imperial capital Esthirant, they flew through the air, circling the area. On top of the airplanes, there were large disks slowly spinning. The JASDF's E767 AWACS were monitoring the imperial capital from an incredible distance utterly beyond the capabilities of the human eye. The E767's disk-shaped radar, the AN/APY-2, makes six revolutions per minute, and the internal three-dimensional radar covers a radius of 800 kilometers at an alt.i.tude of 9000 meters.

That radar detected twenty flying objects in the skies south of the imperial capital. This information was transmitted to all combat aircraft in real time. Flying ahead of the AWACS about 100 km north were ten arrow-shaped aircraft: air superiority fighters, the F-15J Kai. Trailing behind about 50 km were twenty F-2s flying at subsonic speeds, fully loaded with unguided bombs, whose target was the military base housing the empire's ground forces located north of the imperial capital.

The F-15J Kais would be performing the first attack on the empire. The difference in atmospheric pressure on the top and bottom of the main wings caused lines of white to appear in the wakes of the wingtips. They were sharing information in real time with the E767 AWACS: in the southern skies of Esthirant, they knew to be wary of the force of twenty flying enemies.

(I know it's just a warning, but usually we would just ignore them if there were so few.)

The pilot was slightly amazed considering the empire's national power when he had confirmed his mission. The enemies were about 100 km out. The order came in clearly at the same time across every plane's radio.

>

The solid fuel was ignited on the Type 99 air-to-air missiles (AAM-4) installed on the F-15J Kais. The missiles, boasting a range of over 100 km, shot forward at Mach 4 with a loud boom, shooting forward to obliterate the wyvern overlords flying in the southern skies over the imperial capital.

Papaldia Empire, imperial capital Esthirant, southern airs.p.a.ce

Twenty wyvern overlords were on guard in the skies a bit south of the imperial capital Esthirant. They belonged to the 2nd squadron of the 18th dragon knight order. Squadron Leader Derius was talking to Pukrate, a veteran originally from the 1st squadron, via magic communications.

"Let's monitor that section of the sea over there as well."

"Sure, sounds good."

The wyvern overlord formation moved as though it were a single unit, showing off how well-trained they were.

"Squadron leader, about the enemy…"

"What is it?"

"According to the memo we got a few days ago, j.a.pan would be using Mu's aircraft to fight us. But, you know, in the last two battles, I feel like our losses were way too high. When I asked the military top bra.s.s about it, they wouldn't give me a straight answer and told me to just refer to the memo. What are your thoughts, squadron leader?"

The empire's upper management, afraid of the military's morale taking a huge dive, decided to limit the distribution of information on j.a.pan to only some of the military officers.

"It's true—I've heard that the top bra.s.s has been really tight-lipped about this war. It's clear they're hiding something, but I'm not sure exactly what. However, an enemy stronger than Mu, who else is there?"

"Other than the ancient sorcerous empire or the Holy Mirishial Empire, I guess there's no one else."

"By the way—"

"What the h.e.l.l are those?!?!"

One of the sharp-eyed dragon knights interrupted their conversation. Every other dragon knight looked over in the direction that the one knight was pointing. They saw a number of specks in the clear blue sky. They were like crumbs that had been spilled on a clear, beautiful photograph. They quickly grew in size, though, which made it clear that they were some kind of flying object.

"T-They're fast! Evasive action!!!"

Derius yelled the order at preternatural speed owing to his intuition screaming "Danger!" when he saw those things coming at the dragon knight squad. The squadron of wyvern overlords dispersed, but the things also changed direction, continuing to pursue them.

"No… No way!!!"

The missiles, wrapped in shockwaves, chased the otherworld dragons. The air friction at the edge of the shockwaves heated up the air to high temperatures. Each of the twenty AAM-4s fired by the F-15J Kais found their designated wyvern overlord targets.

BOBOBOOMBOBOOMBOBOOM!!!

The dragon knights died without even letting out a single cry. The Papaldia Empire homeland had just become a battlefield for the first time since they had earned the t.i.tle of "superpower." The entire city of Esthirant reverberated with the sounds of the explosions, the eerie noises totally inconsistent with its sense of peace. Some felt fear. Others wondered if the clock had begun to count down on their ruin. Citizens who were already awake, prompted by the explosions, looked up at the sky and saw the shocking scene play out before their eyes.

The wyverns belonging to the strongest defense force defending the imperial capital of the Papaldia Empire, a superpower, were plummeting from the sky like giant raindrops. Some drops were just wyvern heads, trunks, legs, wings, and other parts; some were bodies with the entire upper half missing, things that had ceased to be humans. It was a shower of meat and blood.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

All over the capital of Esthirant, screams could be heard from people unable to stand the gruesome sight. The residents began to chatter noisily, doors and windows opening everywhere. When they looked up into the sky, they saw ten somethings shaped like arrows zoom by at a speed they had never thought possible. Those things each spurted two flames behind them.

Immediately after that, a blast of sound a.s.saulted them, loud enough to make them cover their ears. The gla.s.s in the buildings closest to those things shattered from the ensuing shockwave.

The residents were overcome with pure fear.

"What was that?! What were those?! What's happening?!?!"

The shockwaves from the F-15J Kais continued to echo throughout the imperial capital Esthirant while the residents were infected by terror.

Papaldia Empire, north of imperial capital Esthirant, military ground base

On the first floor of a gaudy stone building, magical operator Paie was tracking signals on the magic detector. Wyverns were the only flying creatures with high magic power; compared to humans, they were basically overflowing with magic. The magic detector was created to track magic power for anti-air defense purposes, but it could also be used for ground monitoring as well.

Currently, the detector only displayed friendly forces in the sky; there were no other creatures in the vicinity with high magic power.

"Hm? Did something just happen?"

Paie noticed that the friendly wyverns, which were previously flying in perfect lines, began to scatter in a disorderly fashion. Right when she was about to report the oddity to her boss, the twenty dots on the screen suddenly brightened, then disappeared. There was no other explanation for that phenomenon…… They had been shot down!!! Paie immediately grabbed the magical communicator next to her and screamed into it.

"Emergency, emergency! A patrol of twenty dragon knights from the eighteenth dragon knight order, second squadron, in the southern skies over the capital have all disappeared from the detector! There is a high chance they were shot down! Third squadron on standby, you're cleared for urgent launch, go check the southern skies! Furthermore, there are no enemy responses on the detector; there's a high chance they're using aircraft!!!"

Right after Paie's order went out, the military ground base became lively with the sound of crashing and clamor. The ruckus immediately alerted everyone to the abnormal situation.

"All twenty signals are gone?!" Paie's boss exclaimed, his face changing color before her eyes as he stared at the detector screen.

"Yes sir; in a very short amount of time, each signal blinked out one after the other."

"Twenty! There were twenty of them up there! That's a sizable patrol squadron, and they were all the strongest dragons in the world, wyvern overlords!!! How could they be done in so quickly?!"

"But it's true! They all disappeared in the s.p.a.ce of twenty seconds!!!"

"Are you sure it's not some kind of malfunction?!"

"That's out of the question!!!"

"Kh! What the h.e.l.l are we fighting?!"

While the two were bickering in the communications room, the 3rd squadron was getting ready to take off having received their orders.

"The second squadron got taken out?! Dammit all! Make sure you're on alert when we get to their last known location, don't get distracted!!!"

With wings spread wide, the wyvern overlords began running, preparing to launch themselves into the air. Because this was an emergency situation, all the wyverns ran together in a single file.

"Enemy detected!!!" someone yelled into their magic communicator. The dragon knights all looked up into the sky.

"Wha—!!!"

The dragon knights, about to take off, heard the sound of back-to-back blasts from the short-range AAM-5s fired by the F-15J Kais.

After hearing the strange noise, Imperial Capital Defense Army Lieutenant General Mayga looked out the window. At that moment, one of his men stumbled into the room without knocking.

"Lieutenant General Mayga! All signals have been lost for the eighteenth dragon knight order, second squadron! Please come to the war room at once!!!"

"I'll be right there."

Mayga quickly walked over to the war room next door. As soon as he entered, he received a report.

"Just now, we lost the signals from the second squadron, which was patrolling the southern skies over Esthirant, on the magic detector. On that detector, right before the signals disappeared, a large light appeared, so the probability that they were shot down is very high. Right now, the third squadron is preparing for emergency deployment."

The subordinate pointed out the window. As ordered earlier, the 3rd squadron's wyvern overlords were on the runway, just about ready to start their takeoff run.

"These enemies… how strong are they…?" Mayga mumbled.

"What are those?!" someone yelled suddenly.

Seconds later, numerous arrows of light slammed right into the dragon knight squadron running down the runway. All the arrows flew true and hit each member of the 3rd squadron, turning them into lifeless pieces of flesh before Mayga's eyes.

He was so surprised he couldn't find his voice, but then some kind of aircraft pa.s.sed by with tremendous speed, spewing flames out their rears. They could feel the shockwaves… There were probably ten of the aircraft. They suddenly began to ascend into the sky at an unbelievable speed, quickly disappearing from sight.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—!!!

The base's emergency alarm began to howl, stirring the people in the base who began running about frantically.

"Everyone hurry and get ready for combat!!! All dragon knight squadrons, anyone who can launch, launch!!!" Lieutenant General Mayga roared.

Imperial capital Esthirant

The capital's residents were all talking about the explosions that went off earlier.

"What was that just now?!"

"I saw the dragon knights over in the south get butchered! All I know is the empire just got attacked by someone!!!"

"Who attacked? It couldn't have been j.a.pan, could it?"

"No way! They're just some barbarians outside the civilized areas blowing smoke. The Papaldia Empire is a superpower and the strongest country in the Third Civilization, there's obviously no way they could attack our capital!!!"

"Then, who exactly did it?"

"Another superpower, or… I don't really think so, but maybe the ancient sorcerous empire?"

"Now that's just silly…"

The citizens' conversation was drowned out by the thunderous roar that suddenly blared. Twenty F2s carrying bombs flew overhead at the super-low alt.i.tude of 50 meters at subsonic speeds.

"W-W-W-What are those?!"

Some people were so shocked they couldn't move, while others ran around panicked; the city fell into a panic. The F2s which had invaded the capital's airs.p.a.ce turned to climb into the sky, dropping bombs as they rose. The unguided bombs soared through the air, drawing a parabola as they fell.

HYUUUUUuuuuu…!

Numerous shrill whistles cut through the air. Even though they had never heard a noise like it before, the people who did hear it instinctively felt their senses of danger ring out.

After dropping the bombs, the F2s let out another thunderous boom, releasing a giant flame as they climbed into the sky and disappeared from sight.

Western imperial capital, military ground base

HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu!!!

"What is that?! What's that noise?!" Lieutenant General Mayga bellowed upon hearing the unsettling sound. There weren't just one or two of the them, but a bunch of things making that racket. Mayga looked out the window. Right then…

A blinding light…
Countless flashes…
Detonations that tore apart his ears…

The bombs dropped by the F2s, missing their intended targets by tens of meters due to variance, hit the wyvern runway. Relentless explosions, one after another. The windows shattered from the explosions, shards of gla.s.s plunging right into Mayga's eyes.

"GAAAAAAAH!!! MY EYES!!! MY EYEEEEEES!!!"

He clapped his hands over his eyes, writhing on the ground in intense pain. Mayga had temporarily panicked from the pain, but forced himself to come back to his senses.

"Situation report!!! Someone tell me what's going on!!!"

Blood flowed freely from the Lieutenant General's eyes; he knew instantly that his sight was lost. However, he had not lost his ability to lead.

"Those explosions were caused by bombs dropped from the sky, we believe. Currently, the runway is on fire, we cannot confirm the extent of the damage just yet," one of the officers stated.

"Bombs from the sky?! Unbelievable… what terrifying power!!!"

While the Papaldia Empire did have bombs, they didn't have any bombs that could be dropped by wyverns. The flying dragons couldn't fly with too heavy a load. They could shoot fire blasts from the sky as supporting fire, but there had been no precedent for dropping bombs out of the sky. All the people in the room were shocked.

"The smoke is clearing up."

Wind helped to blow away the smoke obscuring the runway.

"Wha—! N-Now we can't…!!!"

"What is it?! Tell me what you see!!!"

The base was littered with giant holes, like those on the moon; the runway that appeared behind the smoke was completely unusable.

"The… The runway has been totally destroyed. We can't launch any more dragon knights now!!!"

It was a disastrous report. Mayga felt himself succ.u.mbing to despair upon hearing it.

"The-Then… What do we do about the capital?! Do we have no other options?!"

"There are none. We could gather all of our wyvern overlords, but without a way for them to take off, there's no point. As of now, we have lost control of the airs.p.a.ce over the capital."

Lieutenant General Mayga and all the other officers present had completely lost all hope.

Imperial capital Esthirant

"Hey! Look!!!"

Some agitated residents were pointing to the north. But, with no prompting needed, the people were already looking in the direction of the ma.s.sive explosions. Enormous, never-before-seen billows of flame were blossoming over the military ground base. No words were said; they all just stood there sweating. Some women were crying at the sight. Unfortunately, they then heard something that brought on even more fear.

RRRRRRRRRRRRR…

Where was it coming from? There were a lot of them; they made a noise like a deep growling.

"Now what's happening?!"

"Over there, it's from there!!!"

Someone with good eyesight pointed to the south.

"AH—!!!"

"NOOOOOO!!!"

There were many more of them than before. Big, white machines, descending from the heavens. White clouds trailed behind them, and they made that deep rumbling noise that so terrified the people. They were a lot slower than the previous machines as well, so much so that the residents thought they were be teased by them traveling at such a cruel, leisurely pace. Their slowness, size, and quant.i.ty engendered untold dread in the citizens of Papaldia.

"Are those dragons?!"

The formation of P3C bombers flew over the capital, accompanied by an escort of eight F15-J Kais. There were seventy planes in total; the vapor trails left behind by the pa.s.sing aircraft completely changed how the sky looked over Esthirant. The Papaldia Empire had no way of repelling them. The people of the empire could do nothing but watch as their destruction crept closer and closer.

"We will reach the drop point soon."

They saw a flourishing otherworld city beneath them. A hegemonic culture drunk on its own arrogance. To j.a.pan, they were a country that had no qualms with calling for genocide, including civilians, so there was no need to show them any mercy. However, these pilots were originally only sent on patrol missions; they could never have imagined that they would ever be bombing someone.

"Three… two… one… release!!!"

The JMSDF's PC3 bombing wing reached the drop point as planned and, with the objective of incinerating the imperial capital's northern military base, let fly countless unguided bombs.

"The enemy! The enemy is invading!!!" the Imperial Capital Defense Army officers screamed.

With the destruction of the runway, all of their wyvern overlords were now grounded. They had no weapons that could reach the enemies at their alt.i.tude, so there was nothing they could do.

"Those aircraft are huge! And there are so many of them, too!!!"

"What are they doing?!"

Everyone in the base was looking up at the sky.

"Hm?!"

"Th-Those are—!!!"

"Some kind of black things are falling!"

HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu…

It was the same sound made by the weapons that destroyed the runway earlier.

HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu…

There were a lot more of the noises than before as well.

HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu…

Everyone's eyes opened wide at the sight. There were dozens of enemy aircraft dropping an abnormally large number of the black objects.

HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu…

The number of shrill sounds was increasing exponentially.

"They're the high-powered bombs from before!!!"

"A rain of bombs is coming!!!"

"Take cover———!!! Take cover———!!!"

"d.a.m.n it! There are too many of them, where can we possibly run?!"

The base devolved into chaos, but the bombs didn't wait for their curses.

The explosions were endless. The bursts of light were blinding. The blasts surpa.s.sed the height of a building dozens of stories high. Everything in the base was covered in clouds of smokes from the explosions—yet they continued. As if spitting spitefully on this level of trauma, fierce flames raged across the base ad infinitum.

After dropping all their bombs, the P3C bombing wing climbed up high into the sky and flew off to the south.

The JASDF's RF-4E reconnaissance planes flew towards the military ground base north of the imperial capital to survey the results of the attack run. If the damage inflicted was insufficient, they would call in a second attack.

The reconnaissance planes confirmed the damage from high up in the sky. Using a camera to monitor the results, there were no longer any standing structures, and what was previously a base was now just a field of craters with no moving objects. They confirmed the base's complete annihilation.

"Enemy base has been eliminated. Follow-up attack is not necessary."

The reconnaissance planes radioed in their report, then flew off, back to the base in the Kingdom of Altarus.

The Papaldia Empire's Imperial Capital Defense large-scale military base had its runway destroyed by the JASDF's F2 multirole fighters, then was wiped off the face of the planet by the JMSDF's P3C bombing wing without any vestiges remaining.

Papaldia Empire, imperial capital Esthirant, southern seas

They stormed forward through the waves. There were two lines of metal ships, twenty of them, heading north. The j.a.pan Maritime Self-Defense Force's fleet was coming for the Papaldia Empire's main naval force docked at the large port on the south side of the imperial capital Esthirant.

—  — Chapter 35